


In Which Abe is Not a Euryhalinid

by Melanthios



Category: Hellboy (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, UST, merrows, slice-of-life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-08-11 03:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7875019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melanthios/pseuds/Melanthios
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Failing his first marine dive, Abe nonetheless finds that it gains him certain discoveries... what is science but learning from failure, after all?</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which Abe is Not a Euryhalinid

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Long Distance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090334) by [Delphicoracle_Cat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delphicoracle_Cat/pseuds/Delphicoracle_Cat). 



> * * *
> 
> **Update 2018:** This fic now has fanart! I'm so flattered! The very wonderful [Corvid Caws](http://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCorvidCaws/pseuds/TheCorvidCaws) has posted up both [a sketch](http://candycorviddraws.tumblr.com/post/170528954829/a-really-rough-sketch-page-based-on-the-lovely-fic) and [a coloured piece](http://candycorviddraws.tumblr.com/post/170528919309/roughed-in-some-lines-and-colours-i-think-i-like) inspired by this fic. They're in the comics' art style, even!
> 
> Euryhaline fish are fish that can survive in both fresh and saltwater environments by switching between methods of salt:water balance in their blood (osmoregulation in science talk). Salmon are a good example of a euryhaline fish.
> 
> This fic was partially spawned by my marine biology brain being dissatisfied with the fact that canon (comics or movies) seems to ignore the fact that a fish that has lived in sterile freshwater all his life is _not_ going to seamlessly survive in the ocean. He'd have trouble dealing with the biosphere in a _creek_ , even. It was also partially inspired by the fact that I've had this merrow anthropologist in my character pool (ha) for a while, and he needed someone to talk to.
> 
> The shallow cretaceous sea that Atticus shows Abe, where his people lived, is the [Western Interior Seaway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Interior_Seaway). 
> 
> This is my first time writing any of these characters, so I set my goals pretty small, and wrote this while watching Hellboy 2, as well as looking up the excellent 'Hellnotes' series on Abe and Johann by Mark Tweedale, just to give me a little more comics-canon to work from.
> 
> Special thanks goes to Delphicoracle Cat, who wrote one of the only, and best, Abe/Johann stories out there.

There was something in the water with him. Abe was, unlike most aquatic creatures, unused to things being in the water with him. He’d spent most of his life in tanks and manmade pools, and missions usually had him out of the water or dipping into less recreational—but similarly lifeless—bodies of water.

Something in the water with him was like being thrown into a rock concert after a long and restful silence. The crackling energy of something else, the tiny itches of plankton, the ebb and pull of the tides and currents.

There was nothing for it, Abe thought guiltily; he hated the sea. He kept jumping at every movement, kept feeling tiny _things_ in his gills, and snapped at Johann over the comms— _Johann_ , who didn’t deserve that _at all_.

_‘I sink it vould be wise for you to come back up, you seem distressed.’_

‘That’s probably a good idea,’ Abe said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t concentrate, there’s too many signals from… everything else in here with me.’ He started for the surface, wondering how he could possibly get all the parasites off of him. He figured on a lot of gill-pain in his future…

-

‘Hey, Blue,’ Hellboy said, as Abe stood dripping on the deck of their little boat, grateful the metal was smooth and solid, not the roughened grate he had been anticipating. The larger monster put his hand on Abe’s shoulder—gently, he was always gentle with his aquatic teammate, which Abe had always found touching. ‘You did your best.’

‘Ja, it is very infrequent thet you fail to achieve something,’ Johann agreed, and Abe knew it was meant to be encouraging.

There was a not-noise from the water, and Abe felt the urge to turn around, like someone had called out to him. When he looked, nothing was there, just the white web of surf.

He felt something cool on his gills, and a sharp pain, and turned to see some of Johann’s ectoplasm hovering near his neck.

‘You are _covered_ in parasites, no vonder you cannot focus! Ach, come down belowdecks, we need to get you clean…’

Abe let Johann fuss over him, and Hellboy did his share of fussing too, though at a distance, grumbling about the ocean being vicious as Abe sat on the small bench that served as a medical table, a curtain providing the only privacy as he stripped down for decontamination.

Even outside the water, Abe could feel far too much psychic feedback out here; it was frustrating. He wondered if he was somehow underdeveloped due to being on land for so long, not having been raised in the water, around other fish.

‘Try to relax,’ Johann said softly, and Abe was grateful that Hellboy respected Abe enough to give them some privacy, even if Red still didn’t exactly _like_ the medium.

The cool caress of the ectoplasm had been pleasant, perhaps more than simply pleasant… and as Johann more fully surrounded him, the relief was enough that Abe gave a strangled sound, remembering belatedly to telegraph what it meant, for Hellboy’s sake.

‘Such a relief…’ he murmured, and felt Hellboy, a yard or so away, relax again. ‘I feel awful, not being able to—’ he paused, as he felt the psychic call again. This time, it was accompanied by an audible sound—a mournful, cetaceanine keening.

‘You know, I saw on TV that whales do that to impress girls,’ Hellboy said, and Abe was grateful; he spoke compulsively, sometimes, and he didn’t always want to just say everything that came to mind.

By now, a few years into their stint as _independent_ occult specialists, Johann was used to Hellboy’s chatter, and ignored it. Instead, he focussed on going over every little hard-to-reach spot where a barnacle larva or parasitic zooplankton would have wriggled. They were in the open ocean, and Johann was finding himself grateful for that; if there was _this_ much ready to crawl all over their aquatic specialist in the aquatic equivalent of a desert, he didn’t want Abe anywhere _near_ a region with denser biodiversity.

He could feel Abe’s shivers, and understand that the relief was acute enough to border on sexual; he also knew that he needed to get a lot deeper into Abe’s gills, just to make sure nothing was in there; nasty things embedded themselves in fish gills, he knew this from all the reading he’d done to prepare Abe for his first marine mission.

‘Abraham,’ he said, trying to keep his voice quiet enough to not be overheard, feeling slightly flustered that it was so difficult to remain professional enough to stay detached. ‘I want to do a final check on your gills, but it vould necessitate going deeper into zem. It may be uncomfortable. I know zis is a sensitive spot, I will be careful.’

Abe shivered, and swallowed. ‘I don’t want anything left in there, and… you feel nice,’ he admitted, almost in a whisper. A moment later, he coughed, ‘I mean, I seem unsuited to marine breathing, my gills burn. The… the coolness of your hands would be soothing.’

‘I will go slowly, ja?’ Johann murmured, and did just that; Abe was running out of time in open air, but this would be quick enough.

Abe _sighed_ as the wisps of ethereal touch swirled across his gills; it was suffocating, but not exactly how a creature with lungs would know it—it was something more delicious, somehow, though Abe could never share with anyone why, or how. By the time Johann was done, Abe felt like he might want… ah, well, things he’d only read curiously about on the internet, before. The idea of something inside him, at least, now seemed _deeply_ inviting. As evidenced by his mind coming up with the word ‘deeply’ to describe both the what and the how. But Johann was already retreating back into his suit with a familiar hissing, and Abe tried to get a grip on his composure.

There it was again, the tugging. He got to his feet, sinking gratefully into the fresh, _sterile_ water of his tank on board, and took a few breaths before surfacing again, leaning on the edge nearest the hull and reaching out to touch…

‘What is it, Blue?’ Hellboy asked. ‘was there something out there?’

‘Possibly,’ Abe said. ‘Though it may simply be a whale, they’re quite intelligent—’ As he touched the inside of the hull, he felt another mind touching back, another hand touching the outside of the hull, as the ship bobbed gently in the water.

_Hellocuriousprettystrangehumanfishnotmerrowname?name?Atticusmehellofriendanthropologist_

Abe drew away, breathless at the depth of eager, joyful _friendliness_. Merrow.

‘There is someone.’ He ducked beneath the water again, to breathe, continuing to speak. ‘Atticus. A merrow,’ he said, having sensed Atticus’ idea of himself, the long silvery body and the webbed hands so like Abe’s own, but… Atticus had called him a not-merrow, a humanfish. Cheerfully, yes, and without fear or disgust; but Abe felt a little sad, all the same. Would he ever find out where he belonged? He went on, dutifully, after all this flashed through his mind for but a moment. ‘An anthropologist. He seemed very curious about us. About me.’

‘Merrow?’ Hellboy asked.

‘I would say mermaid, but he is, well, a he,’ Abe tried to explain.

‘Merrow is one of ze words used in Irish dialects. Will he follow ze boat, do you think?’ Johann seemed as curious as Atticus had felt, as Abe had felt. Abe felt the psychic tug again, and they heard, ever so softly, something tapping on the hull.

‘Tell him to follow us, perhaps ve can have a converzation with him.’

Abe wasn’t so sure; but he touched his hand to the hull again, and tried to sustain a more ordered psychic conversation, this time. Atticus seemed amenable, and slowed his own thoughts. This time, the images were more complete…

Atticus looked very much more human than Abe above the waist, but less so below it, a long body and tail covered in silvery scales and immaculately groomed, with two remora arranged in an artful pair along his sides, and a fine mesh container holding a handful of cleaner shrimp, tied around his waist along with a few other tools, mostly scavanged from human trash—a combat knife, a spoon, and a plastic bag of pearls and gold coins to trade with, their flashes securely hidden. He had hair, it was black and he kept more cleaner fish, and seahorses, hidden in it. He had a pet cuttlefish. He was, Abe realised, an entire tiny ecosystem, escaping the parasites that had plagued Abe by having these little pets to eat them off. The sea was just _like this,_ Abe realised, everyone _had_ to be a symbiotic colony; that was why Abe had been so badly preyed on the instant he dove in.

Atticus was very old, Abe realised as the merrow shared memories with him. He remembered animals that no longer existed, remembered seas that were much smaller and colder. And loneliness. And then humans. His memories flashed back to front: of sailships and the sinking of the Titanic, of silent seas before humans took to them, of Vikings and of when the warming seas were new and full of strange beasts that would become whales and seals.

_Where are others like you? Like me?_

At this, Atticus felt sadness, sympathy. _It’s only me. It’s only been me for a long time._ Atticus showed him more merrows, a beautiful reef full of them, with giant clams along the bottom of a shallow sea that was far too big to be extant anymore. The idea of large monsters in the deeper seas, the creatures on the shore offering both threat and slow symbiosis regarding food sharing—oh.

_Dinosaurs? Your people were contemporary with dinosaurs?_

_Oh, dragonbirds? They were wonderful creatures. My shoal has always studied the surface._ Sadness, old fear. _Then the sky fell._

Abe saw only a flash of a terrible memory, before Atticus cut it off, drew it away and back into the box he kept it in. A keening wail sounded again, heartbreaking and sad, and Atticus drew away from the ship, though he still followed. Abe drew his hand back into the water.

‘Whoa, Blue… what just happened?’

‘Dinosaurs,’ Abe murmured, still stunned at the images, the _memories_ of things that paleontology would kill to know. There were creatures he’d never seen before in those images, that nobody had ever seen; it was one thing to read about how the fossil record only preserved a tiny fraction of life, and another to see it. ‘Merrows existed in the late mesozoic, possibly earlier. He’s… he’s all alone. He survived the extinction, somehow.’

The mournful sounds outside the ship’s hull punctuated this knowledge. Abe tried to order his thoughts. ‘He told me… he’s from a shallow sea, I’d have to look through cretaceous fossils to understand… but he said he comes from a long line of scientists who study the surface world. I’m sorry, he was so eager to show me things, I could barely get a thought in edgewise.’

‘He is still following, Abraham,’ Johann assured his friend.

‘Why’s the song changed?’ Hellboy asked, looking uncomfortable, as he always did with tears; though at least now, with the advent of his twins, he did let them fall.

‘He cut off when he told me of the asteroid that caused the mass extinction,’ Abe said. ‘He’s mourning. I suppose even after so long, I would too.’

‘Yeah, okay, but I wish he’d calm down until we’re outta the water,’ Hellboy muttered, though it lacked bite, and Abe distinctly felt him mutter ‘poor bastard’.


End file.
